This is one of the oddest-looking coasters I have ever seen or ridden. The short, bullet-shaped trains consist of six rows with a 12 rider capacity, for which reason there are multiple trains. My first attempt to ride turned into a disaster. Maverick is a motor-launched coaster and halfway up the lift hill, the launch system failed, sending the train back to the lower part of the hill. (Apparently rollbacks on this coaster have occurred on a number of occasions.) So I sat there on the lift hill, harnessed in, baking in the hot sun for a good 40 minutes until ride operators were given the go-ahead to assist riders in getting off the train. (At least we were compensated for the inconvenience with a no-wait pass for Millennium and Dragster and the opportunity to get back on Maverick immediately once it was up and running.)

When I finally did get to ride, it proved to be an absolutely amazing ride. Wow! First you get launched from zero to 70mph up the lift hill and drop 100 feet at a 95-degree angle – and at that angle, you can really feel the drop. From that point it’s a series of drops and banked turns (one 92 degrees) with a couple of really cool, startling but delectable inversions. Deserving of special mention is the horseshoe roll, a combination corkscrew and zero-g roll (as of this writing, there are only two coasters in existence with this element.) As the train comes around a right-banked curve, plumes of water shoot up and make a sound almost like a pistol shot although I did not notice this while riding. There are so many sudden changes of direction at such a relentless pace that the rider can get a little beaten up - this coaster is definitely somewhat on the rough side - although not to the extent of detracting from the overall ride experience. The airtime on this coaster is incredible. And as if all of this weren’t enough, three quarters of the way through the ride, the train enters a tunnel, there’s a short brake run and you get launched again! Maverick is by far the wildest coaster I have ever ridden. 5 out of 5 stars. For more information about rides at Cedar Point, visit www.cedarpoint.com/